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Webster 1913 Edition

Drone

Drone

,
Noun.
[OE.
drane
a dronebee, AS.
drān
; akin to OS.
drān
, OHG.
treno
, G.
drohne
, Dan.
drone
, cf. Gr. [GREEK] a kind of wasp, dial. Gr. [GREEK] drone. Prob. named fr. the droning sound. See
Drone
,
Verb.
I.
]
1.
(Zool.)
The male of bees, esp. of the honeybee. It gathers no honey. See
Honeybee
.
All with united force combine to drive
The lazy
drones
from the laborious hive.
Dryden.
2.
One who lives on the labors of others; a lazy, idle fellow; a sluggard.
By living as a
drone
,to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
Burton.
3.
That which gives out a grave or monotonous tone or dull sound; as:
(a)
A drum.
[Obs.]
Halliwell.
(b)
The part of the bagpipe containing the two lowest tubes, which always sound the key note and the fifth.
4.
A humming or deep murmuring sound.
The monotonous
drone
of the wheel.
Longfellow.
5.
(Mus.)
A monotonous bass, as in a pastoral composition.

Drone

(drōn)
,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Droned
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Droning
.]
[Cf. (for sense 1) D.
dreunen
, G.
dröhnen
, Icel.
drynja
to roar,
drynr
a roaring, Sw.
dröna
to bellow, drone, Dan.
dröne
, Goth.
drunjus
sound, Gr. [GREEK] dirge, [GREEK] to cry aloud, Skr.
dhran
to sound. Cf.
Drone
,
Noun.
]
1.
To utter or make a low, dull, monotonous, humming or murmuring sound.
Where the beetle wheels his
droning
flight.
T. Gray.
2.
To love in idleness; to do nothing.
“Race of droning kings.”
Dryden.

Webster 1828 Edition

Drone

DRONE

,
Noun.
[G., to tinkle, to shake, to tingle.]
1.
The male of the honey bee. It is smaller than the queen bee, but larger than the working bee. The drones make no honey, but after living a few weeks, they are killed or driven from the hive. Hence,
2.
An idler; a sluggard; one who earns nothing by industry.
3.
A humming or low sound, or the instrument of humming.
4.
The largest tube of the bag-pipe, which emits a continued deep note.

DRONE

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To live in idleness; as a droning king.
2.
To give a low, heavy, dull sound; as the cymbals droning sound.

Definition 2024

drone

drone

English

Noun

drone ‎(plural drones)

  1. A male bee or wasp, which does not work but can fertilize the queen bee.
    • Dryden
      All with united force combine to drive / The lazy drones from the laborious hive.
  2. (now rare) Someone who does not work; a lazy person, an idler.
    • 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 117:
      he that gathereth not every day as much as I doe, the next day shall be set beyond the river, and be banished from the Fort as a drone, till he amend his conditions or starve.
    • Burton
      By living as a drone, to be an unprofitable and unworthy member of so noble and learned a society.
  3. A remotely controlled aircraft, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
    • 2012 December 1, “An internet of airborne things”, in The Economist, volume 405, number 8813, page 3 (Technology Quarterly):
      A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
    • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
      In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.
    Several images of the compound were obtained via a drone overflight.
Usage notes

In sense “unmanned aircraft”, primarily used informally of military aircraft or consumer radio controlled quadcopters, without precise definition.[1]

Hyponyms
  • Predator drone
  • Reaper drone
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

From Middle English drounen ‎(“to roar, bellow”), ultimately perhaps from Proto-Germanic *drunjaną ‎(“to drone, roar, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- ‎(“to roar, hum, drone”). Cognate with Scots drune ‎(“to drone, moan, complain”), Dutch dreunen ‎(“to drone, boom, thud”), Low German drönen ‎(“to drone, buzz, hum”), German dröhnen ‎(“to roar, boom, rumble”), Danish drøne ‎(“to roar, boom, peel out”), Swedish dröna ‎(“to low, bellow, roar”), Icelandic drynja ‎(“to roar”).

Verb

drone ‎(third-person singular simple present drones, present participle droning, simple past and past participle droned)

  1. To produce a low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. To speak in a monotone way.

Translations

Noun

drone ‎(plural drones)

  1. A low-pitched hum or buzz.
  2. One who performs menial or tedious work; a drudge.
  3. (music) One of the fixed-pitch pipes on a bagpipe.
  4. (music, uncountable) A genre of music that uses repeated lengthy droning sounds.
  5. A humming or deep murmuring sound.
    • Longfellow
      The monotonous drone of the wheel.
Translations

References

  1. 1 2 Flying Robots 101: Everything You Need To Know About Drones, Kelsey D. Atherton, March 7, 2013

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch drone ‎(“bee drone”). Doublette with drone ‎(“unmanned aircraft”), which was borrowed from English.

Noun

drone m ‎(plural dronen, diminutive droontje n)

  1. (archaic) a male bee or wasp; a drone
Synonyms

Etymology 2

From English drone ‎(“aircraft drone”). Doublette with drone ‎(“male bee”), which descended from Middle Dutch.

Noun

drone m ‎(plural drones, diminutive droontje n)

  1. a remotely controlled aircraft; a drone

French

Noun

drone m ‎(plural drones)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Italian

Noun

drone m ‎(invariable)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Anagrams

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German drone (sense 1), and English drone (sense 2).

Noun

drone m ‎(definite singular dronen, indefinite plural droner, definite plural dronene)

  1. a drone (male bee)
  2. a drone (radio-controlled pilotless aircraft)

Synonyms

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdruːnə/ (example of pronunciation)

Noun

drone m ‎(definite singular dronen, indefinite plural dronar, definite plural dronane)

  1. drone (male bee)
  2. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Synonyms

  • (male bee): hannbie
  • (aircraft): dronefly

References

Portuguese

Noun

drone m (plural drones)

  1. drone (unmanned aircraft)

Etymology

From Middle English drone, from Old English drān, drǣn ‎(“male bee, drone”), from Proto-Germanic *drēniz, *drēnuz, *drenô ‎(“an insect, drone”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrēn- ‎(“bee, drone, hornet”). Cognate with Dutch drone ‎(“male bee or wasp”), Low German drone ‎(“drone”), German Drohne, dialectal German Dräne, Trehne, Trene ‎(“drone”), Danish drone ‎(“drone”), Swedish drönje, drönare ‎(“drone”).

In sense “unmanned aircraft”, due to early military UAVs dumbly flying on preset paths.[1]

Pronunciation

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